The Post reports that the Obama administration was investigating the leak of an intelligence assessment of North Korea. It used internal State Department emails, a reporter's personal Gmail account, as well as records on who was walking in and out of Foggy Bottom to pinpoint two men: Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a government adviser, and James Rosen, a Fox News reporter.

That's not unusual. The U.S. investigates leaks all the time. What made this case, different, reports the Post, is that the government said Rosen had broken the law, "at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator."

"That fact distinguishes his case from the probe of the AP, in which the news organization is not the likely target," the Post report.

Essentially, the Justice Department was saying that Rosen had broken the law doing what journalists do: reporting on government secrets.

"We are outraged to learn today that James Rosen was named a criminal co-conspirator for simply doing his job as a reporter," Clemente said. "In fact, it is downright chilling. We will unequivocally defend his right to operate as a member of what up until now has always been a free press."

The administration defended its investigation. White House spokesman Jay Carney said during his daily briefing today that while Obama was a "defender of the First Amendment," he took leaks "very seriously because leaks can endanger the lives of men and women serving in uniform overseas."